Mainstream Press Tells Clickfraud Story

Looky here, we’re now seeing the topic of clickfraud hit the mainstream press.

An article in the new issue of Newsweek titled: When Mice Attack, tells the story of one ppc customer who claims to have, “lost $50,000 in potential business” due to clickfraud even after complaining to Google.

Despite new efforts to stop click fraud, the temptation for scammers is growing. Advertisers once bid pennies to place their links prominently alongside searches for words like “refinance.” With traffic to the search sites skyrocketing, last week’s bid for that word was $12 a click. Fraudsters have to generate only a few fake clicks to make a day’s pay.

The story mentions that the search engines, through the IAB, have formed a “measurement task force” looking at the problem and trying to develop a standard of what’s a “real” click. Both Google and Yahoo are asked — and decline — to state how much they have refunded due to clickfraud.

Here we’ll take a look at the basic things you need to know in regards to search engine optimisation, a discipline that everyone in your organisation should at least be aware of, if not have a decent technical understanding.